She was a perfectly trustworthy person, with one defect that obliged
me to send her away--a sullen temper which led to perpetual complaints
of her in the servants' hall. Would you like to see her?'
Agnes accepted the proposal, in the faint hope of getting some
information for the courier's wife. The complete defeat of every attempt
to trace the lost man had been accepted as final by Mrs. Ferrari.
She had deliberately arrayed herself in widow's mourning;
and was earning her livelihood in an employment which the unwearied
kindness of Agnes had procured for her in London. The last chance
of penetrating the mystery of Ferrari's disappearance seemed to rest
now on what Ferrari's former fellow-servant might be able to tell.
With highly-wrought expectations, Agnes followed her friend into the room
in which Mrs. Rolland was waiting.
A tall bony woman, in the autumn of life, with sunken eyes and
iron-grey hair, rose stiffly from her chair, and saluted the ladies
with stern submission as they opened the door. A person of
unblemished character, evidently--but not without visible drawbacks.
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